www.nationalview.org and Note From a Madman brought to you by
for your Information Technology needs
owned and operated by Noah "The Madman" Greenberg
This Is What Democracy Looks Like
www.NationalView.org's Note From a Madman
July 23, 2008
Good News and Accolades, McBush-Style
"The price of oil dropped $10 a barrel,"
-John McCain, praising President Bush for lowering the price of gasoline
McCain's logic is simple: The protégé must give credit to his idol for positive
occurrences even if those "positives" are the result of the idol's negative
policies to begin with. McCain argued that by Bush's lifting the Executive order
which banned offshore drilling off the coast of the United States (an order put
in by his father, George H.W. Bush in 1990) that the psychology of rising fuel
prices has also changed.
Remember, it was just last week that McCain's Number One finance guy, former
Senator Phil Gramm said, ""We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just
hear this constant whining, complaining..."
So it makes sense, at least in a John McCain sort of way, that the rising cost
of fuel is, likewise, all in our head. Perhaps we should just stop our "whining"
about fuel costs, along with the loss of our jobs and the falling dollar. After
all, the McBush "base of haves and have mores are doing well, right?
For their part, however, the present Administration of Diminished Responsibility
is not taking the "credit" for "falling" fuel prices.
"I don't know if we fully deserve the credit,"
-White House Press Secretary Dana Perino
Oh, p-sha... take your accolades Ms. Perino. After all, you, your boss and the
rest of the Bush cronies deserve it, don't they?
And speaking of deserving it, who deserves the "credit" for the 53 percent rise
in energy costs (as reported by the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor
Statistics in their Consumer Price Index report) over the past three months?
Certainly if one gets the hoorah's for a ten dollar drop in crude oil costs, and
the three or four pennies we might save at the fuel pump, the cat-calls must go
out to those same people for the meteoric rise that has brought us from $1.25
per gallon in 2001 to the present four-plus dollar per gallon nationwide average
we are living through today.
If the logic which John McCain uses in praising President Bush's "foresight" in
oil production sounds familiar, it ought to. This is the same logic which this
administration has used all along. As a net jobs loss in the first four years of
the Bush administration strangled our economy, the first plus month of job
creation, a number which didn't take into account population growth, was
heralded as a new kind of beginning. Similarly today, as our economy declines
with rising prices, a housing and mortgage crisis, a falling dollar and a new
loss of jobs each and every month, the brighter side of things which this
President, and his would-be successor (McCain) point out is that our economy is
"fundamentally sound."
And McCain's view on things makes him see things that just aren't there - like
economic progress. He needs to go back to the optometrist to get his
prescription changed for those rose-colored glasses he wears.
Perino followed her "no credit" statement with this:
"We don't predict what happens in the market. We can't really tell. Certainly,
taking that action would send a signal that at least the executive branch is
serious about moving forward and increasing the supply we have in America."
-Perino
And that's the gist of it. This administration has no freakin' idea what is
going on. They have economic advisors paid hundreds of thousands of dollars
each; they have reports prepared by "experts" they have all the tools at their
disposal which should make them have an inkling as to what is actually going on
in the market, but they don't.
And what's more, The Bush-McCain-McBush answer to our "Addiction to oil", as the
President himself discovered just a year ago, is to increase the supply! Since
when was it smart to sell the junkie more smack as an answer to his habit?
"I'm an optimist,"
-President Bush in referring to his economy
And one has to be an optimist in order to see this economy as President Bush,
and now John McCain do. Just what would make Senator McCain pause anyway? would
it take another Great Depression with upwards of twenty-five percent of those
who wish to work looking for that work? Would it take ten dollar a gallon gas
prices to make him see things as they truly are?
But they have "optimism".
-Noah Greenberg
In response to, "And if your answer is John McCain, then what in the world are
you doing reading this column?" Rhian writes"
How about neither. How about an election that is 100% write in, with both John
McCain and Barack Obama ignored by voters.
In response to the reply that "Obama voted like McCain," by Ginger, which read:
"McCain didn't vote. He was conveniently absent that day. Of course, many
people, including me, would say he's absent most days... at least mentally.
"Obama has said that this was the best possible bill. He did try to get the
loathsome telecom provision removed but, failing that, decided in the end that
there were other aspects of the bill that we definitely needed for now. There's
nothing to stop him reversing that provision as soon as he's president. I expect
enough Democrats in Congress after November to make passage fairly simple."
Victoria Brownworth writes:
Then how come Hillary Clinton and many other Democrats were able to vote against
it? How is it the best possible bill when it isn't? Shredding the Constitution
is NOT better when a Democrat does it than when a Republican does it. That's the
kind of thinking that is destroying the country, actually. And has certainly
eviscerated democracy as we know it. Making excuses for the Democrats is not the
answer. Taking EVERYONE to task is.
In response to, ":In the VP Sweepstakes, It's Time to Make the Case for
Hillary," Victoria Brownworth writes:
Boy am I glad you are finally seeing reason! Unfortunately it's now the worst
thing possible for her as he is now so far to the right.
I wrote this months ago, so I am glad to see Noah Greenberg has finally come
around to reprising everything I wrote back in May. The problem is, the tide has
turned and it would be terrible, I think for Sen. Clinton to take the VP slot
and be tied to an ineffectual and increasingly right wing candidate. Sen. Obama
has proven in the days since Sen. Clinton withdrew from the race in which she
won the popular vote and the Pelosi Gang orchestrated the super delegates in
Sen. Obama's favor that he is NOT an anti-war candidate, NOT a progressive
candidate. In fact, the most progressive parts of his current platform are ones
he and even the media acknowledge were derived from her platform.
Sen. Clinton has either another chance to run for president in 2012 or the
opportunity to become a lion of the Senate or possible Supreme Court Justice.
She doesn't seem to have the stomach to be the Dick Cheney of an Obama
Administration. Which is, of course, to her credit. However I will say that the
only way I would vote for Obama over Cynthia McKinney, the Green Party candidate
at this juncture would be if Clinton were the VP.
However seeing Obama hand in hand with Chuck Hagel--a Republican (and there's no
such thing as a moderate Republican)--on his Middle East tour makes me think
that Clinton will not be his choice. Which will mean a lot of votes for McKinney
and possibly even for McCain that should have gone to the Democrats.
In response to this Report by ABC's Jake Tapper:
"The White House this afternoon accidentally sent to its extensive distribution
list a Reuters story headlined 'Iraqi PM backs Obama troop exit plan -
magazine.'" Victoria Brownworth writes:
The Iraqis have completely backtracked on this story. What does that mean?
It more than likely means that someone got to the Iraqi Prime Minister from the
Bush administration. -NG
Send your comments to: NationalView@aol.com
-Noah Greenberg